Yuan Changming
[Author Name]
Biography
Yuan Changming, 12-time Pushcart nominee and multiple poetry award winner, is probably the world's most widely published contemporary poetry author who speaks Mandarin but writes in English. Growing up in an isolated village, Yuan started to learn the English alphabet in Shanghai at age nineteen and authored several monographs on translation before leaving China. With a PhD in English from the University of Saskatchewan, Yuan lives in Vancouver, where he edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan at http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/. Since mid-2005, Yuan has had poetry appearing in nearly 2,000 literary outlets, across 48 countries, which include Best Canadian Poetry (2009, 2012, 2014), the Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-2017), BestNewPoemsOnline & Poetry Daily. Recently, Yuan was nominated & served on the Jury for Canada’s National Magazine Awards (poetry category). While his 13th collection Edening has just become available (at https://www.amazon.com/dening-Changming-Yuan/dp/195027621X), Yuan is currently working on his first (hybrid or cultural) novel Edening.
Poetics Statement
“Poetry is a harbor for the heart, a hotbed for the mind, and heaven for the soul.
Poetry may descend or decline, but will never die.
Modern poetry suffers as much from all the alternatives of distractions readily available in the form of entertainment as from the way it makes reading more of a pain than of a pleasure.
Poetry changes neither nature nor society, but it can tune the mind for the moment.
Besides lyric poetry, do we have any other kinds of poetries at all?
No true poetry is really long or narrative; it’s a prose writer’s job to tell interesting stories and offer literary opiums.
However interesting they may be, novels tell stories about others, while poetry, only poetry, allows us to find a personal relevance.
Since poetry publication has become a “business of love,” why bother about whether a poem is previously published or not, where it is first published? The only important thing is to make “good poetry’ available out there.
While every reading of a poem is a new poem, good poetry is found in the heart of the reader’s soul.
Every good poem must contain a “poetic eye,” something that is uniquely intriguing or inspiring to the soul.
Just as many reputed literary outlets publish word garbage, many well-known “poets” do not deserve to be called poets in the first place.
Poetic fame often results from fortunate strokes of serendipity rather than from spontaneous demonstrations of real talent.
In writing poetry, one may wish to die there, or live forever.
In my poetrying practice, I never care about the reader’s response. Like Li Shangyin’s spring silk worm, my sole concern is to turn out what is best inside of me; if people do not care about my contribution to the world, why should I?
For me, the meaning of life, if any at all, is to create a meaning for it through poetry.
A poetic proposal about linguistic equality: I, still for the first person singular, but U for the second, & E for the third, all single-lettered, capitalized & gender-inclusive; say, for example: I Love u, U love e, & E loves us all.”
Sample of Poet's Work
Missing in Missed Moments
Each time I miss you
A bud begins to bloom
So you are surrounded by flowers
Everywhere you go
Each time I miss you
A dot of light pops up
So you are illuminated by a whole sky
Of stars through the night
Awaiting
There is a long wait of the passengers
For the detouring and delayed bus
And the wait of the wintry grasses
The wait of the legendary lion king
Before it preys upon a real baby zebra
And the wait of the summer sun deep in the nightmare
The wait of the orchid on the window ledge
The wait of the diamond in an unknown mine
And the wait where you stop and watch
And there is a wait of this darkness
Which you are going to compress into words
A wait that is to spread out thin on the blank paper
Unlike winter stars holding their light in light-years
The wait after you finish writing
And the longer wait then
Yin/Yang vs. Water/Fire: Lesson One in Chinese Characters
(a bilinguacultural poem)
Fire‐Setting as in California
灶 /zào/: an oven is built by setting a fire beside a pile of earth
灿 /càn/: splendid is the view of a fire sweeping over a mountain
烟 /yān/: smoke originates as a cause flickering like a spark
烦 /fán/: frustration occurs when a fire burns a page
烧 /shāo/: to burn something is to set a fire high on it
炒 /chăo/: to fry is to use little fire
烙 /lào/: to iron is to burn each and every spot
炉 /lú/: a stove is the fire burning in a household
炮 /pào/: a cannon is a fire wrapped tight
Water-Filled as in the Yangtze Valley
沙 /shā/: sand is something holding little water
河 /hé/: a river has water allowing everything possible
洗 /xĭ/: to wash is to put something into water first
波 /bō/: waves surge when water flows like skin
注 /zhù/: to focus is to be the master of water
源 /yuán/: a wellspring is the original water
泪 /lèi/: tears are water seeping from the eyes
洒 /să/: to spread is to throw water into the west
演 /yăn/: a performance is a show in respect for water
酒 /jiŭ/: wine is water fully matured